The two sides of the Mindtree story, decoded down to the last detail

Who is a gardener? Someone who works in a garden, tending to plants and nursing saplings. There is an inherent ring of care and compassion to the term. Co-founder and former chief operating officer (COO)-turned ‘gardener’ at MindtreeNSE -1.03 %, Subroto Bagchi’s recent tweets attacking Larsen & Toubro (L&T) as a bunch of marauders arriving at the gates of Mindtree’s Eden with “bulldozers and saw chains” to mow it all down “so that in its place, they can build a shopping mall” is rather imperious, contemptuous and derisive.

As L&T’s leadership retorted, “We have bulldozers, we have cranes, we make things that make the nation proud. We make submarines, rockets, missiles and guns. We are a national company.” Any self-respecting professional would tend to agree with that last statement.